Category: Words To Live By

According to some recent statistics, approximately 80% of all the people in the United States identify themselves as a Christian and 84% of the world’s population maintain some level of religious faith and following. What this means is that approximately 8 in every 10 people in both this country and throughout the entire world hold some level of belief in a Higher Power. Given those staggering numbers, I am very troubled by the amount of people who continue to have a hard time forgiving someone who has apparently wronged them in some way, shape, or form when one of the greatest principles of building faith is also in carrying love and forgiveness for everyone.

Why do people continue to hold onto their grudges like they are a best friend? Do people realize that every major religion in this world practices forgiveness in their doctrines? While I’m not a religious person, I do consider myself a spiritual one and follow many of the same teachings and beliefs that Jesus, Ghandi, Buddha, and Muhammad held. In Christianity especially, Jesus always practiced forgiveness to everyone and yet isn’t it ironic that when 8 out of every 10 people in the United States identify themselves as Christians, we still have many hate crimes, violence, and bloodshed that all revolve around the lack of forgiveness.

For the longest time I identified myself as a Christian but was so far from living that way. I carried many grudges like badges of honor and felt hate towards so many. All that did was make me a very negative and angry person who held a tainted view on life. And the more that people “crossed my path”, the more grudges I carried. And the more grudges I carried, the more I disliked everything in life, including myself.

I’ve learned that carrying a grudge is like wanting to have cancer in my body. I’m sure if I went up to anyone who was carrying a grudge and said that they were carrying cancer by holding onto their resentments, most would likely do whatever they could to let them all go. But most don’t realize the poison that is building within their body by carrying any type of grudge.

I believe that God is the opposite of a grudge and is instead, all about forgiveness. There are so many examples in all of the major religions of that, even in the ones that don’t specifically believe in one deity. I have chosen today to not follow any of those religious because I don’t want to put myself in a box. But what I do follow is a higher set of guidelines, ones which allow love for everyone and ones that work on forgiving all those who have ever harmed me, even the most painful ones.

The three most painful ones I have ever had to practice forgiveness towards was with an adult man who molested me, my father who committed suicide, and my mother who spent the last few years of her life drunk. In each of those cases, I held onto to a lot of anger and rage and couldn’t forgive any of them for years. My health suffered as a result on every possible level. When I finally came to a place of healing and forgiveness with all of them, it was as if I became a lighter person.

While I don’t have proof that toxicity builds in the body when one holds onto a grudge and refuses to forgive, I do know that nothing good ever came out of it when I did. The closer I’ve become to God in my life, the more I’ve realized that I need to do what I can to be an example for others in practicing love, forgiveness, and peace for everyone. I am one of those 8 in 10 people in this world who maintains some level of faith in a Higher Being. My Higher Being is God who I know always forgives, so why shouldn’t I too?

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

One of the greatest gifts any of us are given is the ability to dream. The dreaming I am referring to is actually not the one that happens when we are asleep, it’s the one that can occur in any given waking moment. And it’s the one where the mind, body, and soul unite together solely for the purpose of visioning something truly special that each of us individually strives for in our future.

Children do this all the time…

I want to grow up and be a fireman.

I want to grow up and be a doctor.

I want to grow up and be a policeman.

I want to grow up and be a pro athlete.

I want to grow up and be the next President.

Somewhere along the line though, many of those children become adults and forget about their childhood dreams of things they once envisioned for themselves. They settle into jobs and relationships that only bring them temporary satisfaction, and all too often, more misery in life. That’s only because deep down within each of their souls is a bigger dream desired in life. Unfortunately, most never pursue them ever again and instead choose to remain uncomfortably comfortable throughout the rest of their life. Some choose to numb themselves from those distant memories of a life once thought about by falling into any number of addictions. Others accept it as the cards they were dealt. And then there are those who will say that they’re too old or too poor or have too little time to ever try to pursue any of those dreams once thought about.

I honestly can’t remember what my childhood dreams were for my future. I think that’s because I grew up in an environment that didn’t fully allow me to think completely outside the box. Along the way, I ended up becoming a businessman and following a career that was really a lot more like what my parents wanted me to pursue than probably what my inner self wanted. For years I went from job to job and relationship to relationship seeking more satisfaction. But even when I got that, it only lasted for a short period of time and always felt as if something was still missing. Today, I believe what was missing was my heart and soul in all of what I was doing and a closer relationship to God.

Through all the healing work I’ve been doing on myself, I have thought a lot about the inner child who still lives within me and what he wants to dream about for the rest of the time I have in this life. The Shaman I am a student under recently asked me to start visualizing that by writing down some things I want God to guide me towards as I continue to heal and spiritually grow.

The following is a list, in no particular order, of those things my inner child and I have started dreaming about of a future I am working towards with God at the helm. I wrote each of them with the phrase “I will” solely for the fact that it’s putting myself in a greater place of empowerment and manifestation in life.

1. I will be physically healthy and well enough again to fully play golf, basketball, bowling, and tennis, as well as to hike, bike, and jog.

2. I will be employed in a career that I look forward to going to when I wake up each day.

3. I will be earning a living doing something that is also helping make this world a more loving place.

4. I will be married to my current partner and strive in that relationship to help create a society that embraces same sex relationships rather than tear them down using religious viewpoints.

5. I will be a prominent author who is represented by a well known publishing company that also books speaking engagements to talk about what I’ve written.

6. I will be a spiritual motivational speaker around the world that talks about all the things I’ve gone through and healed from including addiction, codependency, racism and prejudice, bullying, growing up in a broken home, and more.

7. I will be meditating into deeper and longer states.

8. I will develop all the spiritual gifts that were blessed within me in this life.

9. I will be living in a climate that is more warmer than colder year round and have a house there on some body of water where I can sit out on a deck in peace and serenity.

10. I will be a beacon of hope, light, and love that naturally inspires others to find their own path to God.

There are plenty of other things I’m sure I could come up with that are also dreams for my future. But the most important thing is that I’m allowing myself to dream again and not numbing myself anymore from thinking about them. I believe that with God guiding my life, all of them and then some are possible.

I encourage each of you to take a moment today, breathe, and dare to dream again in your life by writing a few of your own aspirations down like I just did. Ask God to guide you life path towards achieving all of them. What do you have to lose other than the few moments of your time that it takes to write them out and say a quick prayer over them???

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

One of the greatest gifts any of us are given is the ability to dream. The dreaming I am referring to is actually not the one that happens when we are asleep, it’s the one that can occur in any given waking moment. And it’s the one where the mind, body, and soul unite together solely for the purpose of visioning something truly special that each of us individually strives for in our future.

Children do this all the time…

I want to grow up and be a fireman.

I want to grow up and be a doctor.

I want to grow up and be a policeman.

I want to grow up and be a pro athlete.

I want to grow up and be the next President.

Somewhere along the line though, many of those children become adults and forget about their childhood dreams of things they once envisioned for themselves. They settle into jobs and relationships that only bring them temporary satisfaction, and all too often, more misery in life. That’s only because deep down within each of their souls is a bigger dream desired in life. Unfortunately, most never pursue them ever again and instead choose to remain uncomfortably comfortable throughout the rest of their life. Some choose to numb themselves from those distant memories of a life once thought about by falling into any number of addictions. Others accept it as the cards they were dealt. And then there are those who will say that they’re too old or too poor or have too little time to ever try to pursue any of those dreams once thought about.

I honestly can’t remember what my childhood dreams were for my future. I think that’s because I grew up in an environment that didn’t fully allow me to think completely outside the box. Along the way, I ended up becoming a businessman and following a career that was really a lot more like what my parents wanted me to pursue than probably what my inner self wanted. For years I went from job to job and relationship to relationship seeking more satisfaction. But even when I got that, it only lasted for a short period of time and always felt as if something was still missing. Today, I believe what was missing was my heart and soul in all of what I was doing and a closer relationship to God.

Through all the healing work I’ve been doing on myself, I have thought a lot about the inner child who still lives within me and what he wants to dream about for the rest of the time I have in this life. The Shaman I am a student under recently asked me to start visualizing that by writing down some things I want God to guide me towards as I continue to heal and spiritually grow.

The following is a list, in no particular order, of those things my inner child and I have started dreaming about of a future I am working towards with God at the helm. I wrote each of them with the phrase “I will” solely for the fact that it’s putting myself in a greater place of empowerment and manifestation in life.

1. I will be physically healthy and well enough again to fully play golf, basketball, bowling, and tennis, as well as to hike, bike, and jog.

2. I will be employed in a career that I look forward to going to when I wake up each day.

3. I will be earning a living doing something that is also helping make this world a more loving place.

4. I will be married to my current partner and strive in that relationship to help create a society that embraces same sex relationships rather than tear them down using religious viewpoints.

5. I will be a prominent author who is represented by a well known publishing company that also books speaking engagements to talk about what I’ve written.

6. I will be a spiritual motivational speaker around the world that talks about all the things I’ve gone through and healed from including addiction, codependency, racism and prejudice, bullying, growing up in a broken home, and more.

7. I will be meditating into deeper and longer states.

8. I will develop all the spiritual gifts that were blessed within me in this life.

9. I will be living in a climate that is more warmer than colder year round and have a house there on some body of water where I can sit out on a deck in peace and serenity.

10. I will be a beacon of hope, light, and love that naturally inspires others to find their own path to God.

There are plenty of other things I’m sure I could come up with that are also dreams for my future. But the most important thing is that I’m allowing myself to dream again and not numbing myself anymore from thinking about them. I believe that with God guiding my life, all of them and then some are possible.

I encourage each of you to take a moment today, breathe, and dare to dream again in your life by writing a few of your own aspirations down like I just did. Ask God to guide you life path towards achieving all of them. What do you have to lose other than the few moments of your time that it takes to write them out and say a quick prayer over them???

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

I would like to think I know a little about a lot of things in life. But I’ve learned there are a lot of things in life I don’t know very much about at all. For the longest time I gave the illusion to most people that I was a “Mr. Know It All”. Today I’m working on doing what I can to change that impression.

Does anyone really like a “Know It All”?

Growing up in grade school I often raised my hand and had the answer to many of my teachers’ questions. Of course it gave me the reputation of being a nerd and people picked on me incessantly because of it. As I grew older, I continued this pattern and believed I knew something about everything. One of the greatest downfalls that has come along with that is something I’m still working on. Unfortunately, I’ve had the tendency to use the Internet to look things up on the fly when someone makes a statement that I don’t believe is true. While I have often found inconsistencies in what people are saying and pointed it out to them, it’s also left me in an unfavorable light where I just seem like that annoying “Know It All”. Not only has this turned people off from wanting to get to know me, it has also prevented me from learning anything new. The best comparison I can make to this is to a full glass of water. What happens when one tries to pour anymore water into that full glass…? It overflows.

Though my journey of growth and healing to become closer to God, I have continuously been emptying out much of that glass of water so as to remain open to furthering my learning in life. In Buddhism, there’s a wise saying that says “as soon a student begins to think they know everything, the reality is that they really know nothing at all.” God continues to show me how profound this statement is. Each day now I ask to be emptied of my ego based belief systems that have kept me being that “Know It All”.

For many people, like myself was for the longest time, the world can become a fixed and rigid circle with its own inner belief systems. When anything that comes up to that circle is different from within it, it’s often rejected with many “Know It All” statements. One great example of this is how too many of the religions today are teaching its followers that homosexuality is an abomination from God. When in reality, if people were able to expand beyond their rigid circles of knowledge, they might see that gay people are loved by God too and that is the way God intended them to be. That’s just one of the many things I have expanded in my understanding and each time it happens, I continue to remember that to remain teachable, I have to allow myself room to expand.

I don’t wish to be that “Mr. Know It All” anymore. It only impedes my spiritual progress in life and pushes people away. It also gives power to my ego and limits my ability to grow healthier and be more loving to everyone. I think the next time someone around me says something that I believe is wrong, I won’t look it up on the Internet or try to correct them. Instead, I will try to remain silent and just listen for once. Who knows, maybe in doing that, God might help me learn something new…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson